ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD - The 35th Under Secretary of the Army, Hon. Gabe Camarillo, visited the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, or ATEC, Headquarters on August 23 at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
Camarillo met with ATEC Commanding General, Maj. Gen. James J. Gallivan, and ATEC Executive Technical Director/Deputy to the Commander, James Amato, to discuss ATEC’s support to Army priorities.
Camarillo then gave remarks during the ATEC Commanders Conference, where he addressed all senior leaders across the command to express the importance of ATEC’s mission in the Army.
"I cannot stress to you how important it is; the mission that you perform for the Army, for our future Soldiers and for the missions that they have to perform," Camarillo said. “I’m incredibly grateful and indebted to all of you for the expertise you bring, the professionalism that you have brought to your mission, and just importance of the role that you all play for the Army.”
Camarillo continued by discussing the advantage of ATEC being a largely civilian workforce, where many new people hired have no prior experience in the Federal Government.
“I think this is absolutely amazing because that means we can leverage talents, experiences, and skillsets that all of you bring to the table that we wouldn’t have otherwise had.”
After Camarillo concluded his remarks, he opened the floor for a question-and-answer session with all attendees.
Camarillo then visited the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, or ATC, for an opportunity to see some of the Army’s modernization efforts in test and to interact with workforce.
“It was an honor to speak to Under Secretary of the Army Camarillo about our current efforts at ATC in finishing development of an Autonomous Systems Test Capability lab to test ground-based software in a digital environment,” said Camille Houston, Director of ATC’s Virtual Test and Advanced Electronics Directorate.
Houston explained to Secretary Camarillo that the digital testing at ATC will allow the movement of testing new ground-based autonomous systems forward in the acquisition cycle, long before the vehicle gets tested on the physical ranges.
“Using the virtual environments will allow us to test the software in simulated weather, on varying terrains, and with challenging obstacles to assess system performance. The capability will also allow us to test the software in degraded states to ensure that the autonomous system is robust enough to safely operate. Using the virtual environments ultimately allows us to test at a faster pace since the capability isn’t dependent on physical systems or test ranges,” said Houston.
Houston told Secretary Camarillo’s group that ATC has plans to advance the current capabilities by integrating them into a robust distributive test control environment in the future. “This will allow our labs here to link with other DoD or Federal labs across the country, where we can have more robust testing sessions across multiple spectrums in the future,” Houston commented.
ATEC leaders concluded that it was a privilege to host Secretary Camarillo and his staff for the opportunity to see just how our technicians and scientists are working every day to help modernize how the Army tests equipment in order to provide the Soldier safe and effective gear.
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